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Dr. : FATHER OF ’S SPACE PROGRAM

Dr. Padmanabh K. Joshi Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Archives Nehru Foundation for Development, E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Padmanabh Joshi, obtained his Ph.D. on the topic “Dr. Vikram Sarabhai: A Study on Innovative Leadership and Institution-building” from – IIM, Ahmedabad. He organised Archives of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai at Nehru Foundation for Development, Ahmedabad and was Scientist In-charge: Vikram Sarabhai Space Exhibition Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. Wrote three books on Dr. Sarabhai – Vikram Sarabhai: The man the vision. He recently published a book Vikram Sarabhai: India’s Space pioneer. He has delivered a number of popular Radio and TV talks.

Abstract An attempt has been made to study the beginning of India’s Space Program and the role of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai as the founder with a special reference of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.

Childhood and Education old. For his scientific research and experimental work, he visited the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Poona, It is well-known that Vikram Sarabhai along with his two where he met Professor K. R. Ramanathan, Director of Poona brothers and five sisters had their primary education in the Observatory. During this period, he had started planning a private school started on Montessori education system at their research laboratory for studies of Cosmic Rays and house The Retreat. When the teacher felt that a child was ready Atmospheric at Ahmedabad. He discussed his plan for the matriculation examination, he or she appeared in the with Dr. Ramanathan and also requested him to join the exam as an external student of the R. C. High school, proposed new research laboratory, as Director. Dr. Ahmedabad. In 1935, after completion of Matriculation Ramanathan agreed to his invitation and promised him that examination, Vikram Sarabhai joined the College for after his retirement from the IMD in 1948, he would join. The further study. In the year 1937, he completed his intermediate PRL was started in 1945 by Sarabhai with the help of the examination from (Bombay University). Karmakshetra Educational Foundation (K.E.F.) started by his Then he went to Cambridge for higher studies and joined St. parents. The K.E.F. itself was established for starting, carrying John’s College, U.K. He was awarded his B. A. degree in on, and helping to carry on advanced scientific research and Physics and Mathematics, his Tripos, in 1939. The second educational activities of all types. When the war ended in world war started in the same year and he had to return to 1945, Vikram Sarabhai with his newly married wife Smt. India, where he joined the Indian Institute of Sciences, Mrinalini Swaminadhan went to Cambridge to complete his Bangalore and continued his post-graduate study under the Ph. D. in Cosmic Rays. There Vikram Sarabhai continued his Nobel Laureate, Professor C. V. Raman. Professor Raman research work on photo fission at the Cavendish Laboratory. suggested Vikram Sarabhai to do his post-graduate and In 1947 at the age of 28, he was awarded Ph. D. degree of the doctoral research in Cosmic Rays. Vikram Sarabhai, thus Cambridge University for his thesis on “COSMIC RAYS decided to do his post-graduate and later doctoral research in INVESTIGATIONS EXPERIMENTS WITH GAMMA Cosmic Rays which led him to studies of interplanetary space, RAYS” and he returned to India in 1947 cosmic terrestrial relationships and geomagnetism. His first scientific research paper on “Time Distribution of Cosmic A Visionary Scientist Rays” was published in Proceedings of Indian Academy of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai had a variety of choices for his career. sciences (A: Vol. 15, p. 89, 1942). Menon (1972) described Dr. Sarabhai’s love for science: While working on his post-graduate research he had to “From his early childhood Vikram was deeply interested in build up the necessary equipment for his experiments which Science. And for him, Science was not to be just a part of a he did in Bangalore, Poona and Apharwat in the Himalaya liberal education, to fit him for a career in business, industry region. During a visit to his mountain station in Gulmarg, near or administration. His interest in science was deep and abiding Alpathari lake, in 1943 to carry out high-altitude experiments, and he meant to be the central theme of his life and career.” he conceived the idea of a dedicated laboratory for cosmic rays and atmospheric physics, even though he was only 23 years Thus, he chose to remain as a scientist committed to scientific

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research and while building his career as a scientist, he showed Development of the second-generation young scientists his multifaceted personality as a , a space scientist, a through scientific research and training remained the basic programme at the PRL. For Sarabhai training of young technologist, a nuclear scientist, an organizer, a management scientists formed a part of his scientific mission. In spite of his scientist, an educationist, a teacher, an industrialist, an multifarious responsibilities, Sarabhai was always available to institution builder, a planner of decades with a vast range of his students. As Menon (1972, p.40) observed: interests and erudition, an internationalist, a connoisseur of art, a very warm human being and a true lover of nature “who "Vikram Sarabhai worked in the field of cosmic ray variations, could see birds and squirrels in creative work”. and set up a group which was undoubtedly the best in this field and which achieved recognition in international science." In 1947, after his return from Cambridge, he started converting his dream into reality. He started the Physical On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. He had already in the first artificial satellite Sputnik into space and the world Retreat a laboratory for Cosmic Rays with a skeleton staff entered the Space Age. The I. G. Y. (International including a Scientific Assistant knowing electronics, a glass Geophysical Year) Program had started on July 1, 1957 to blower and an all-round general mechanic. Dr. Sarabhai December 31, 1958. Dr. Sarabhai had begun to contemplate discussed with , one of the trustees of the the necessity to study solar activity to comprehend the Ahmedabad Education Society about a possible collaboration behavior of cosmic waves affecting earth’s atmosphere; between K.E.F. and the Ahmedabad Education Society however, there was no “space programme” in any institutional (A.E.S.) to establish a Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad for form in India in 1955. Following the IGY, mindful of the the study of Cosmic Rays and Atmospheric Physics. In extensive developments in astronautics and space technology November 1947, both K.E.F. and A.E.S. agreed to start PRL occurring on a global scale, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai proposed the in Ahmedabad and an agreement was signed accordingly. The to start the India’s Space Programme. objectives of PRL were stated as under: India entered the Space Age "The aim of the Physical Research Laboratory is to serve as a STUDY AND RESEARCH CENTRE FOR PHYSICS IN In 1962, the Government of India set up the Indian National WESTERN INDIA and help to raise the standard of POST Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) under the GRADUATE EDUCATION IN EXPERIMENTAL AND Department of Atomic Energy. Vikram Sarabhai was THEORETICAL PHYSICS". appointed as Chairman. Sarabhai was also entrusted with the administrative responsibilities of INCOSPAR. And the PRL The initial research programme of the Laboratory was oriented became the HQ of the INCOSPAR. by the scientific interests of its principal workers. Professor Ramanathan was interested in the problems of temperatures, As Director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Dr winds and moisture in the upper atmosphere, atmospheric Sarabhai convened an army of able and brilliant scientists, ozone, ionospheric physics, geomagnetism and solar- engineers, communicators and social scientists from all terrestrial relationships. Professor Sarabhai was interested in corners of the country to spearhead the Indian space understanding the causes of the time variation of cosmic rays programme. Dr. Sarabhai was not interested merely in the and the light they could throw on the source of cosmic rays. glamourous aspect of space. As Mc Cracken (1979, p.11) described: "In 1961 he (Dr. Sarabhai) began speaking of the The story of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s career as a scientist and Indian view of space research; a view that was clearly different the growth and development of the Physical Research from that of the developed countries which were active in Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, are very much interwoven. space at that time. He spoke of using satellites to provide Immediately after starting of the PRL in 1947, Sarabhai began television for the half million villages of India; TV in which an extensive, research in cosmic rays time variations. Pandya there would be a single video channel, and 14 different sound (1972, p.8) described: "Dr. Sarabhai was never content with channels to bridge the linguistic gaps that divide the Indian merely reporting the observations, but he always looked into nation. He spoke of agricultural; family planning and health the implications of the experimental data leading to an education being given to the non-urban population by understanding of the nature of the interplanetary space. Thus, satellites. He argued that it would be faster to use a satellite to his efforts to provide a theoretical understanding of the origin provide a high quality, nationwide telephone system than to of the Semidiurnal component of the cosmic rays led to use a conventional ground-based microwave system. That is, postulating and estimating gradients of cosmic ray intensity he spoke of a careful tailoring of Space Science to the national perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic long before this may goals of his country. He spoke of space scientists applying be confirmed by space-borne equipment. Similarly, the large- their intellectual capabilities to practical problems, and set the area scintillation array at Ahmedabad has a North-looking example by doing so himself." Thus, Vikram Sarabhai started telescope which registers cosmic ray intensity away from the the Indian Space Research Programme for national plane of the ecliptic, and Dr. Sarabhai showed how this data development. gives an understanding of the electromagnetic state of the In 1963, Sarabhai proposed at the UN that India was prepared interplanetary space, and its changes, particularly at high to become the host country to establish an International heliolatitudes. There are only a few other observations (such Equatorial Sounding Rocket Launching Facility, the UN as comet tails) which can give such information." accepted the proposal and Thumba, 16 K.M. north of

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Figure 1: Dr. Sarabhai with Dr. H. J. Bhabha Figure 3: Dr. Sarabhai with Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Figure 4: Dr. Sarabhai with Sir. C. V. Raman Figure 2: Dr. Sarabhai looking at a Moon rock Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Trivandrum, was selected as the site for this international collaboration. Thumba as a site for this facility was very In 1966, Dr. Homi Bhabha died in an air crash. Dr. Vikram appropriate because it is very close to the geo-magnetic Sarabhai was requested to succeed Dr Bhabha as the equator. On November 21, 1963, the country’s first rocket Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India. So, in 1966, called Nike-Apache, was successfully launched from the first Dr Sarabhai was made responsible for the Atomic Energy Space Centre established in India, namely, the Thumba Commission, the INCOSPAR and the Electronics Committee. Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). This marked Vikram Sarabhai was convinced that a developing country the beginning of Indian Space Programme with which India like India should directly plunge into the satellite entered the Space Age. TERLS was formally dedicated to the communication era without going through the step-by-step UN by the late Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on February methods of cables, microwave links etc. Sarabhai's basic 2, 1968. In this function, Vikram Sarabhai described the approach to the development was based on "leap-frogging", relevance of space technology for a developing nation like i.e., avoiding the unnecessary conventional methods towards India: "There are some who question the relevance of space attaining development. activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the As Vice-President and the Scientific Chairman of the U.N. Conference on Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, economically advanced nations in the explorations of the held at Vienna, during August 1968, Sarabhai said: "A moon or the planets or manned space flight. But we are developing nation following a step by step approach towards convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, progress is landed with units of small size, which do not permit and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real the economic deployment of new technologies. Through problems of man and society, which we find in our country." undertaking ventures of uneconomic size with obsolete technologies, the race with advanced nations is lost before it

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is started. Indeed, if one continues to operate on this to the future power requirements of mankind, India should philosophy, financial and technical assistance from the develop a core of trained plasma and technologists advanced nations to the developing nations can only result in who would be able to take up fusion work in earnest, as and the frustration of the former and the increasing economic when its feasibility is demonstrated elsewhere in the world. A dependence of the latter." During this period, many of his new activity, namely the plasma physics activity which was students who had completed their post-graduate and doctoral initiated in 1968 developed rather vigorously during the studies under the guidance of Dr. Sarabhai had started working seventies. This had twin objective: (i) to provide a theoretical in the Space Programme. -Some of them were sent for training and laboratory support to the existing ionospheric and space in launch vehicles as well as satellite design and development. research activities at PRL and (ii) to initiate a high temperature As INCOSPAR grew and on 15-8-1969 Indian Space plasma research activity which may form the basis in the Research Organisation - ISRO constituted under the future of fusion oriented research and development Chairmanship of Dr Vikram Sarabhai. programme. The second part of the activity, having been nucleated at PRL has since been separated from PRL as the Dr Sarabhai was not merely a visionary who had ideas, made Institute for Plasma Research at Bhat, Gandhinagar. plans and proposed the most optimum and radical solutions. He was also a man of action, and this, perhaps, was his great When Dr Sarabhai mentioned to Prof. C. V. Raman about his quality – combining vision with action and dynamism. He did desire to start a scientific research institute in Ahmedabad, not merely suggest satellite television as a possible solution to Prof. Raman told him that there were quite a few institutes in the problem of mass communication, education and India like the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, National information transfer, but he went a stage further and on18-9- Physical laboratory, New Delhi, Tata Institute of Fundamental 1969 concluded an agreement with NASA, USA, following Research, Bombay and Saha Institute at Calcutta, then why the recommendations of the various studies he had initiated, was he interested in starting a new institute? Dr Sarabhai to conduct a joint Satellite Instructional Television replied “No plant grows under a tree”. Experiment (SITE). This agreement allowed India the use of Dr Vikram Sarabhai died in his sleep on 30th December 1971at ATS-6 satellite for a period of a one year during which the Hotel Kovalam in Trivandrum. Till mid-night, he was busy in experiment would be conducted. Under SITE, 2400 villages space related discussion with his colleagues. Here is a story of of 6 states of India were selected and programmes on the Physical Research laboratory and Dr Sarabhai’s Agriculture, Education, Health and Hygiene, Animal contributions in making it not only as a National Institute but husbandry, Population control were telecast. It was a most also an internationally known as the Cradle of India’s Space successful experiment. Program. Vikram Sarabhai lived the life of a practical Karma In 1970, Dr Sarabhai presented a Profile for the Decade: 1970 Yogi – doing his self-allotted duties (Swadharma) with - 1980 for the Atomic Energy and Space Research selfless (Anasakta) and tireless devotion till the moment of his Programmes for India. During the same year, he as a final sleep. President, 14th General Conference, International Atomic References Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, addressed the member countries about the peaceful uses of the Nuclear Energy. 1. Joshi, Padmanabh K. (1985) Dr Vikram Sarabhai: A Study on Shriharikota Range (SHAR) was commissioned on October 9, Innovative Leadership and Institution-building (An 1971, when a RH-125 rocket was successfully Unpublished doctoral thesis, ) launched. Now the centre is known as Space 2. Mc Cracken, K.G. (1979), Bringing Space Research Down to Centre (SDSC). Earth in (Ed.), Space and Development, England: Pargamon In addition to the starting of the Indian Space Programme in 3. Menon, M.G.K. (1972), Vikram Sarabhai: My Friend and the Physical Research Laboratory, Dr Sarabhai also showed Colleague in Science Today, January, pp.39-43. considerable interests in various subjects related to the 4. Pandya, S.P. (1972), Dr Vikram A. Sarabhai in Physics News, Physics. Subjects like Astronomy & Astrophysics, Planetary 3(1), pp.7-9. Atmospheres, Earth Sciences, Theoretical & Fundamental 5. Ramanathan, K.R. (1972), Scientist, Educationist, A Warm Physics and also the Plasma Physics. The study of plasma Friend in Nuclear India, 10 (5), pp.12-14. physics in all its aspects undoubtedly constitutes an integral 6. Rao, B. S., Karnik, K. S. & Chitnis, E. V. (1972) Dr. Sarabhai – part of the overall space research programme of the laboratory His Vision and Plans in the use of Satellite and TV in the context - it can in fact be considered as a natural extension of the work of National Development in electronics today Feb. pp. 77-81. of PRL in the field of aeronomy. Almost all the experimental 7. Sarabhai, Vikram A. (1946) COSMIC RAYS INVESTIGATIONS EXPERIMENTS WITH GAMMA RAYS. studies being carried out here are intimately related to the (An Unpublished doctoral thesis, Cambridge University, UK) properties of plasma in various parameter ranges. Thus, an 8. Sarabhai, Vikram. (1968), Speech delivered at the dedication understanding of the various ionospheric, magnetospheric, ceremony of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station Galactic, solar and geomagnetic phenomena cannot be (TERLS), to the UN on February 2. achieved without a corresponding understanding of basic 9. Sarabhai, Vikram. (1968), Speech delivered at the UN plasma processes. Dr Vikram Sarabhai realized this and Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer started a Plasma Physics Group at P.R.L. in late nineteen Space, at Vienna during August. sixties (1968 with one-member group which got expanded in 10. P.R.L. (1974), 25 Years of P.R.L., Ahmedabad: PRL. PRL IV 1972). He also realized that since fusion is the ultimate answer decades

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